Jackie Joseph

 Jackie Joseph began her career as a featured performer and singer in the Billy Barnes Review of 1958, with future husband and actor Ken Berry.

Jospeh is best known for her role as the original Audrey in "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960). It had been rumored that the film's shooting schedule was based on a bet that Roger Corman could not complete a film within that time. According to Joseph, Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed, and he would not be able to produce low-budget movies in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it to happen the last week in December 1959.

Joseph and Dick Miller (the flower-eating Mr. Couch) wound up working together again in "Gremlins" (1984) and "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (1990) as Mr. and Mrs. Fudderman.

In the early 1980s, Joseph, who divorced Berry in 1976, helped form an organization for celebrity wives overcoming divorce. The group, which included Lynn Landon, Patti Palmer Lewis, and Carol Lawrence, appeared on talk shows (such as "The Phil Donahue Show") to discuss the foibles of celebrity split-ups.

Happy Birthday, Jackie Joseph!